A decade after an initial "pivot to video" sparked widespread newsroom cuts, media organizations are once again overhauling their operations to keep pace with changing online habits. In the mid-2010s, publishers poured resources into social video only to discover that platforms like Facebook had inflated view metrics, leading to painful staff reductions. Today, newsrooms face an audience that has already migrated to video feeds, with the Pew Research Center reporting that 20 percent of Americans—and 39 percent of adults aged 18 to 29—regularly get news on TikTok.
To win over audiences accustomed to informal creators, traditional outlets are embracing more casual, personality-driven storytelling. The New York Times recently introduced "The Call," a vertical video series framed as an intimate video conversation between a host and a reporter on the ground. Similarly, CNN collaborated with the digital channel Jubilee to host a political town hall using its popular debate format, while programs backed by Poynter and Microsoft, alongside publisher initiatives like The Washington Post's creator network, pair newsrooms directly with independent influencers.
The push has led to an industry-wide reformatting dubbed "the clippening," in which podcasts, investigative reporting, and broadcasts are carved into vertical clips for smartphone feeds. Tech platforms continue to reinforce the shift: Nielsen data shows YouTube commanding nearly 16 percent of American television viewing, while Meta reported record-high watch time for Facebook Reels in the third quarter and has tested launching apps straight into full-screen video.
Yet the expansion brings familiar financial tension for newsrooms. As platforms push for longer and more varied video formats, publishers must absorb the expense of putting reporters on camera without any guarantee that online engagement will generate sustainable revenue. For an industry still marked by past platform promises, the challenge remains balancing the need to stay relevant against the risk of another costly miscalculation.